Physical Therapy for Hamstring Strain

I finally started Physical Therapy for my hamstring. I feel like I have told my story to so many doctors and had to do it yet again. They all keep referring me to each other. 

I went into the therapist on Thursday and met with Brian, I explained everything and he poked, prodded, stretched, manipulated and twisted my body to determine exactly where it hurt, what was tight, what was sore and what we might be able to fix.

Brian decided that I really should go back to Dr. Leahy and have some A.R.T. performed on my hip flexors, they are both super tight and uncomfortable. I just wish insurance would pay for those visits, but it doesn't. Brian did agree though, that the entire left side of my lower body is "jacked up" as I said.

I was there for an hour and a half! I did lots of different stretches, some cable exercises, some silly bends with a 2.5 pound kettlebell. I think he made me use it because I laughed at the three little bells and said "I have never seen such tiny kettlebells! They look like jewelry!"

Some of the stretches require a partner, I need to find someone to stretch me. Anyone close by and willing - let me know!

The highlight of the session was 11 minutes on this thing, I believe it was electromagnetic stimulation. I had this once for a shoulder injury years ago, I told Brian that it was like an exciting masochistic event as I was in control of the dial that determined the electrical output. How much can I take? It is an odd sensation holding it and slowly adjusting the electrical current.

I didn't have shorts so Brian got these big black basketball shorts and tossed them to me. "I bet you never wear anything like this to the gym!" he said as he closed the door to allow me to change.

I told him that I didn't, but there was the time when I was standing outside at work for hours due to a fire alarm and I called SC and asked If I could come lift to kill the time - did he have anything I could wear?  He said yes and when I got there and changed I looked like a rag doll in the huge clothes. I said "Where the hell did you get these?!" and he said the shirt was his (he is a big guy and I think he wore extra large) and the shorts belonged to the NFL player James Jones of the Green Bay Packers, SC used to be his Strength Coach. "They got a drawstring!" he said "Cinch 'em up and let's go!"

Brian had me lay down with my legs elevated and connected the electrodes.

He had it on a fairly high current- I made the mistake of telling him that I have a very high pain threshold. 

Here you can see the muscles jumping around in response to the treatment, it was quite an odd sensation. The muscles jerked quite violently at times. He siad I can buy a small home version for a super affordable price, I am thinking about it but need to research the effectiveness a bit more. If you have any opinions, i would love to hear them!

I have scheduled an appointment to see Dr. Leahy about my hip flexors, funny how the only thing that really gives me relief is the one that insurance will not pay for. 

I'll be going back for physical therapy twice a week for the next month and I will keep you posted! 

Email subscribers will need to navigate directly to the blog to view the video below.

Swinging

I am sure some of you are not thinking the same thing I am when I say "swinging", but that's just fine, think what you like!


Sunday was back day and I decided to sleep in, I have been enjoying my Sundays lately. So...I woke up at 5:55 a.m. oh well. I had my meal replacement drink and headed off to the gym.


I felt good, rested for a change and was ready to attack the day. I started with my favorite, chin ups and pull ups, superset with dips. Not sure how many sets, I think 7 sets of 6 to 8 chin ups, and 4 sets of dips (10 reps).


Lat pull down, I didn't increase weight but I did increase reps. I also cut my rest time down. Low Cable Row, again no increase in weight but more reps and less rest in between. I did 5 sets of each.

Single Arm bent Over Row, 5 sets.


E-Z Bar Curl, 5 sets.

Then, what would I do for conditioning? I decided to use the kettlebells. I haven't used bells in quite a while, I have done a bit of swinging and that was it.  Although I love training with Roy, kettlebells are what brought me to SC, that's all we did for almost a year. I love the down and dirty of kettlebells, there is nothing sweet and pretty about them. SC taught me everything anyone needs to know, and I am darn good too.


I get dirty, blistered, bloody, sore sweaty. I love them.


I started with Turkish Get Ups. This is a slow, steady move that targets the whole body, but particularly the core. You start laying on the ground and one hand has a KB, held straight up in the air. You sit up then stand, and go back down again, all under a great deal of control. It sounds easy and it's not. I did three sets of 4 on each side. I hadn't done them in over a year, I will need to start doing more and work up to 10 on each side.


Then snatches, I loves snatches. A couple years ago I spent the summer doing Kenneth Jay's Viking Warrior Conditioning. SC helped me come up with the correct tempo and weight. You start with a small bell and a fairly slow tempo, everything is timed including the rest periods. You work up to 45 minutes of continuous snatches. That's why the bell needs to be so light.


I wear cut up tube socks on my hands, I have permanent blisters but this stops them from tearing and bleeding. Once you start bleeding you pretty much need to stop. I have several sets in my bag, they get dirty and I toss them out. Below you can see a short demo of snatches in my backyard. February in California- nice huh?


(Email subscribers will need to navigate directly to the blog to view the video below).




At the gym I did 5 sets of 10 on each side, I walk in between to bring my heart rate down.


After the snatches I moved to swings. This is the classic kettlebell move and the one that most people don't perform correctly. I typically see people perform it in the "crossfit" method, which although may be useful for what crossfitters want it for, it is not what the move or exercise was intended for at all. This is not meant to offend anyone who loves Crossfit- I say do what you like. I am only trying to explain to those who do not know kettlebells, that if they see the 'crossfit" method they should not confuse this with the kettlebell swing. They are two completely different animals.


In crossfit it becomes more of an arm exercise, they swing it up with arm strength way up over the head; they may say that this is the "American Style".The swing is everything but that. It is designed as a  posterior exercise. It should hit the glutes, the hips, the hams, the quads, and the abs, and some of the back/shoulders too. Some crossfitters call this the "Russian Style".


The power should come from the hips, and the glutes. The arms are only an extension of the bell, they are attached and flowing with it, there is no effort coming from the arms.


(Again, if you want to do it crossfit style, that's fine, but I cannot offer advise, I am not into crossfit although I have plenty of friends who are.)


I did 10 sets of 10 with a 24 kilo kettlebell (that's 53 pounds). Again, I walk in between each set to bring my heart rate down. I knew I was doing them right, my breathing becomes very rhythmic and I could feel my glutes swelling after 5 sets! ha ha


I have my own bells, so can do these any evening in the backyard. I think I need to start this again.

My Third Trainer - Huong

A while back I wrote about my first two trainers, and now it's time for trainer #3, Huong Arcinas (now Huong Ho), who is an IFBB Figure Pro. She has even been on the Olympia stage! Here we are at my second show, before I took first place in Masters! Dang check out my hair, there is lots of it huh?!

I worked with Huong at the same time as working with SC, so I may flip back and forth between the two of them, and we trained together for about a year I think.

It was very early 2009 and I decided I was going to hire a nutritionist because I was busting my butt, but not seeing the results I really thought I should be seeing.

I consulted with Kim Porterfield, from The Institute of Eating Management And Relapse Prevention Center in Texas and she developed a diet for me, a diet I could live with, in fact, a diet I have lived with now for almost 3 years!

After I started Kim's diet I went from 13% bodyfat to 8% in 4 weeks. Now 13% is not shabby by any means, but I wanted to be ripped. I looked great! I had already told SC that I was planning on competing so I needed someone to help me, I knew nothing.

SC was no help here, he supported my decision but thought Figure and Bodybuilding was dumb and not a true sport. He is a Strength Coach, "posing" is stupid in his mind, it has nothing to do with any sport. Except the sport of "booty". I suppose he is right, it doesn't technically seem like a sport, yet that is what it is! He would get in my face and say "I hate bodybuilders", then in the same breath help me to train the body parts I was working on to grow. 

I found Huong on the Internet, and recalled seeing her picture in a magazine somewhere...

I emailed her and she called me so we could talk about my goals and we arranged a time to meet. 

I had told Huong I was at 8% bodyfat, and unbeknownst to me, she was thinking "Yeah, right, they all say that" (she told me this later) and when we met she had her fat tester in her hand, it quickly disappeared, she could see I was indeed at 8%, just where I said I was (SC had tested it).

It was March and I told her I wanted to compete in the San Jose show coming up in July. Her response? "Hell no, you look great and you will compete in the Contra Costa in May!"

And I did. 

I had 8 weeks of prep for my first show and I took 2nd in Masters and 14th in open B. I was scared to death. 


It's easy to train hard and feel like you look great, and you do! Then you walk backstage and are suddenly surrounded by a sea of beautiful, tanned, hard, rippling muscles. It's easy to start feeling inadequate. Huong was there for me, nudging me and making sure I kept believing in myself. 

I would train with SC on Fridays, doing the things I loved to do and I would train with Huong on a weekday evening after work, doing what I needed to do to sculpt the body for Figure.

Huong has quite an eye. I would walk in and she would say "You are up a pound what did you eat the last couple days?"  She was right, my weight was up.

Or, she would look at me and say "What's your carbs at?" and I had better be able to quickly give her my daily total.  She would tell me to adjust it here and there according to what I looked like. I would go into training each week praying under my breath that she would say to me as I walked out the door "go eat a burger!"...

We mainly worked on upper body, she helped me to learn to train my back and shoulders to get the much coveted V taper needed for Figure.

Huong and SC would have conflicting ideas of training, but then their goals were totally different so that is to be expected. I wanted to compete, and therefore needed to listen to Huong, she was (and is) the expert there. But I loved the tough stuff, the sleds, the deadlifts, the sledgehammers, the loud music and sweating. The chalk. That's what I got with SC. Down and dirty, my kind of training. Blood, dirt, sometimes grease. 

I felt sorta bi-polar at times. 

Huong was there for me at the shows, supporting and gluing my suit on. That is one thing I have never really gotten used to. The promoters do not allow trainers or friends backstage to help the competitors, but there are those in the industry, who are well known enough that are allowed, Huong was one of those, being a Pro competitor herself. It was great for me then, but now, when I don't have a trainer who is in the industry, it makes me a little miffed, so some women have an advantage by having that help backstage. Believe me, you need it! 

I chalk it up to the fact that many of these trainers help to maintain a steady supply of competitors to the shows, thus making money for the promoters, so the promoters allow them to do this. Double standard but that's life I suppose. I built my bridge and got over it, I know dance upon it.

Ever try to glue the butt of your suit on yourself? Pretty darn hard to get it straight. I have gotten used to doing a very goofy looking squat and glue dance, and who gives a damn who is watching. It can be pretty funny when the guys and gals are in one big room though. To be honest though, most competitors are so caught up in themselves at the time you could be standing stark naked next to them and they wouldn't notice you.

I do know that if she were backstage she would certainly help me still though!


Here we are with two of her other clients, Natalie and Stephanie. This was backstage at the San Francisco in 2009 I think.

Huong taught me to look at myself with a very critical eye, and to be conscious of my posture, my core, my abs, how I walk and my facial muscles. I would make faces when I would train. She would stop me and tell me - "Look at your face, look what you are doing". I would learn to relax my face.

Huong suggested stripper or pole dancing classes, I opted for Pussy Cat dance class, it was cheaper! ha ha.  Pole dancing caused bruises I heard, so some day I will do that, but at that time I didn't want to chance it. Stripping was more expensive. Classes are at Sedusa Studios in Campbell. They won't give you their location until you pay for classes and they speak to you, the last thing they need are lurkers...they offer everything, lap dancing, pole, strip, chair, you name it, they teach it! It's a fun place, very comfortable and close by my home and gym.


Her thought process was correct - most of the women who do this look stunning, their conditioning and physique, so you need to stand out, you need to bring personality to the stage, you need to have fun (or at least look like you are), you need to feel and look confident, you need to be able to seduce people from afar and draw the judges to you. You must make them want you and like you. It's all quite a game. You need to learn to entertain on stage.

It took me a while to learn, I was scared to death the first time and it shows all over my face. I also got down lower in weight than I ever have been, and I prefer my weight 1 to 2 pounds higher. 


As far as the actual weight training, Huong taught me to vary my reps and sets as we moved closer to competition time. It doesn't always stay constant. She advised on how much cardio to do. And when I was tired of it all and just wanted to stop, she would ask if I want to quit or wanted to win.


I am not a quitter.


Huong trains at Ray's Built Tuff Gym in San Jose, here is the gang again, Ray and all the competitors from the gym (and a couple trainers). Ray was the guest poser. He asked if a couple of us could put his pro-tan on and we pretended it would be an awful mess, but secretly I was dying to do it! Somehow he finagled a spray tan instead so we all felt cheated!

Huong taught me all the ropes, what to expect, what to bring, how to register, what not to do, how to pose. She measured me for my suit and we selected colors, I had a beautiful suit made by Celeste Harsa  of Suits by Celeste. Later I would decide that I wanted an even smaller bottom, so Celeste made a new bottom for me. It's pretty darn small too. 


Huong shared her many years of experience with me, there is no way I could have been as successful at competing as I have been if I had never trained with Huong. In fact, she once told me that the majority of women who decide to compete get close, and never step on stage, or they only do it once. She made sure I wouldn't be one of those women. 

Please see the links below if you would like to read about my first and second trainers.

My Second Trainer - SC


My First Trainer -Baz

My Second Trainer- SC

SC stands for Strength Coach. I am not showing you his picture, I am not saying where he works, nor will I reveal his name. You can take a look at his ear though.....

He never should have been training me and I don’t want to jeopardize anything he has going on right now, simple as that.

I met SC in 2007. I was looking for a qualified RKC and we connected via email. I arranged to come by his facility and meet with him. I will never forget the day I walked in there, oh the place was wonderful, absolutely huge with Olympic platforms, racks, free weights, glute ham raises and really, really loud music.

I stood in front of him, all 125 pounds of me and told him pointedly:

“I don’t need someone to motivate me, I don’t need a coach, I don’t need anyone to show me what to do. I  know the basics of kettlebells, I just want to master them and learn more about them so I don’t injure myself.” I kinda thought I was all that.

He was big, not a lot taller than me, but a big, buff, young guy. He smiled; we talked a bit longer and came to an agreement.

We started training on Friday afternoons, just like I do with Roy.  The very first time we trained he asked me to show him what I knew. Immediately he stopped me and corrected my transition when changing hands with a one hand swing. “Never change in the back” he said.

So much for the “training” I received at Courtside.

I became quite good, I learned everything. Turkish get-ups, suitcase deadlifts, one hand swings, two hand swings, snatches, we went for speed, we went for volume.

He had big bowls of chalk. I loved to walk up and plop my hands in it, then smack my butt so I had two nice hand prints there.  I would get huge calluses, my hands would bleed. He was very caring, when the blood was really bad he would follow me into the kitchen as I rinsed my hands, then squirt liquid dish soap on them and say “wash ‘em!” ha ha

One day as we sat in his office he looked at me and said “Kristy, I have taught you everything I know. You are good, really good. You could be an instructor yourself. You would easily pass the RKC test. I can’t teach you anything else”

I said “Then teach me all you know about strength training. I want to learn”

So began a three year odyssey.

I learned to deadlift. I learned squats. I learned to do pull ups with a kettlebell strapped to my waist. I pushed a prowler in the hot sun on artificial turf.  I still carry my cute black patent leather cleats in my car, just in case I get to push a prowler again. 

I swung a sledge hammer with football players in the hot sun in a sand pit, smacking a huge tire, sweat dripping into my eyes, clothes soaking wet.

I would swing those bells, at the end of each session usually 10 sets of 10, heavy ones too, each time blood blisters would form.  I slammed leather med balls against the ground while on my knees, I learned to do eccentric chin ups for much longer than anyone would want to every think about.

I learned all the words to 2pac’s music.

I learned the Olympic lifts. Clean and jerk, hang cleans, snatches. It was scary heaving the barbell up like that and actually letting it drop. It was fun to watch it bounce. SC used to compete in Olympic lifting, he knew what he was doing.

We would train for a couple hours sometimes, I loved it. After each session I would go to the locker room and take a long shower, and then we would talk in his office. I told him that I really want to understand what makes it all work. So he gave me a text book to read. He expected me to read then report back what I thought of the theory, of the data. What was this book?

Science and Practice of Strength Training by Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky and William J. Kraemer.  I ended up buying my own and have read it two more times, it is that complicated. It is a college textbook and not cheap.

I ended up reading countless books and e-books he gave me, and we would discuss them as we found time.

I then became his “guinea pig”.  We tried experimental things such as isometric training, sessions of high volume, sessions of heavy weights. He would write up a new program every few weeks. The first time we would go through the exercises and make sure I knew what they were, we would set weights then I would record my training the rest of the week. The following Friday I would come back and he would increase the expected weights for the next week.

At one point I started to get pretty ripped, muscular and people kept asking me if I competed. Competed in what? I didn’t know what they meant, I thought there was only bodybuilding. I started to research it all. I told SC I was going to hire a nutritionist and I would consider competing. I told him I work my butt off and I want something to show for it, I want a goal to keep driving me forward.

He thought that was a good idea, but looked me in the eye and said “I hate bodybuilders!” that hurt me, but he then said that I wasn’t a bodybuilder, I knew more than any bodybuilder did.

I remember once I asked him if he went easy on me because I wasn’t one of his athletes, I was a woman and I was almost as old as his mother. He replied “Kristy, I expect the same from you as I do all my other athletes”. And he probably added something about stop whining and start lifting….

SC never had a good opinion of personal trainers; he said they gave Strength Coaches a bad name.  Strength Coaches have studied a long time, they have advanced degrees in the subject matter, and a personal trainer can just take an online course and pass an exam. This certainly doesn’t mean that there are not personal trainers out there who are not qualified, but I would get an idea of their training and background before committing to them.

SC is probably one of the smartest people I have ever met when it comes to strength training. 

To my knowledge, SC only trained one other “non-athlete” during those three years, a young guy as a favor to a friend, and then he had a 2 month stint with a group who wanted him to train them how to use kettlebells. Other than that, it was me and I still don’t really know why he agreed to do it or even continue it.

SC started checking my bodyfat weekly with a 9 site caliper test, I don’t think it ever went above 12% and when close to a competition, it would go as low as 4%.

In the first year with SC I started to compete in Figure and then brought a new trainer into my life, an IFBB Pro. I would end up training with both of them for about a year and a half. My fun and strength development was with SC, my “sculpting and posing” was with my Figure Pro. As I write about her, trainer #3, I may bounce back and forth between them a bit.

Later, after I had been working with my nutritionist (I will write about her later), some of his female athletes wanted to know how I looked the way I did. He said “ask her what she eats” I wrote up a few diets for some female athletes trying to drop some bodyfat.  

In the end, we had to discontinue our training, not that either one of us wanted to but circumstances forced us to. SC has taught me more than I could probably learn in a Kinesiology course in college; he gave me practical knowledge and shared his experiences with me. He taught me the importance of research, studies, books, data and gut wrenching hard work.  I would not be the person I am today had he never come into my life. 

In Between Trainers (2007)

Once I realized I was on my own, and wouldn't have a trainer, I actually developed my own routine quite quickly.

The gym opened at 4:30 am and I was there 5 days a week before they opened. The gal who worked the front actually gave me the code to the key box in case she was late for some reason, so I could enter the code, get the key and open the door.

I would wake up at 3:30 am (yeah I got kind of fanatical) and then run to the gym! It was 4 miles each way. I would put on one of those silly orange reflective vests, and off I went to the gym. Once I got there I lifted weights, then I put my cute little vest back on and ran the 4 miles home again. People teased me, people laughed, but who’s laughing now?

I started to read a lot, so I could understand what to do and what not to do. I read all the magazines but then I bought books. Most of them were about strength development, how the muscles worked, definitely not bodybuilding that was the furthest thing from my mind at the time.

I looked mainly at men’s strength training; I don’t believe women should train any differently than men should. I bought e-books, I bought videos, and I taught myself everything I didn’t learn from Baz.

I got very comfortable and felt I started to really know a lot. The diet was not anything I concentrated on, I just tended to eat a lot healthier than before and I gradually ate better, but it was not a focus of my life as it is now.

As you can see in the picture above, I was lean and fairly muscular, but not in a Figure competitor way, that takes a different type of training.

Then I had a problem, my gym was going to be sold yet again. I freaked out, as they said they would be remodeling and you know what that means! I also researched the company taking over who had one other gym and I was not impressed. Plus the name of the place was not very inspiring "Anastasia's Club Fit" what on earth was that?! I set out to find a new gym before they changed hands.

After locating all of the gyms within the distance from my home I would consider, I narrowed it down to the ones that opened no later than 5:00 am, which was really the latest I could train.

I then set out to visit them, there were only 4 of them and unfortunately since I live in a fairly upscale community, only one was a low cost “chain".

I ended up at the most expensive one, Courtside Club, but it really is a great place and I have come to call it home, I have been here now since 2007.

I can tell you all about why I didn’t choose the others but that isn’t the point.

I arrived at Courtside strutting in like I knew everything, but quickly felt out of place. This was no bodybuilders gym, in fact, most people didn’t even venture into the weight rooms, this a a club and the folks here like cardio best, or tennis.

I slowly developed friends among the morning crowd, a very friendly group of people indeed.

I started reading about kettlebells; I got several books by Pavel. Who is he? Here is a bit from Dragon Door:  Pavel Tsatsouline Master of Sports, is a former Soviet Special Forces physical training instructor who has been called "the modern king of kettlebells" for starting the Russian kettlebell revolution in the West.

In 1998 Pavel introduced the ancient Russian strength and conditioning tool to the American public in his subversive article, Vodka, Pickle Juice, Kettlebell Lifting, and Other Russian Pastimes. The article was published by MILO, a magazine for tough hombres who bend steel and lift rocks. When Pavel started getting mail from guys with busted noses, cauliflower ears, scars, or at least Hell's Angels tattoos his publisher took notice.

Several years later Dragon Door published Pavel's book Enter the Kettlebell! which became the golden standard in kettlebell instruction. It was followed by Return of the Kettlebell which introduced the most advanced Russian strength and muscle building techniques.

Pavel is a subject matter expert to the US Marine Corps, the US Secret Service, and the US Navy SEALs. A kettlebell in his fist, he was voted the 'Hot Trainer' by Rolling Stone and appeared in media ranging from Pravdato Fox News. Dr. Randall Strossen, one of the most respected names in the strength world, stated, "In our eyes, Pavel Tsatsouline will always reign as the modern king of kettlebells since it was he who popularized them to the point where you could almost found a country filled with his converts…"

I also have books by the above mentioned Dr. Randall Strossen…Anyway, Courtside didn’t have any kettlebells, I thought this was crazy! So I decided to buy some of my own and teach myself.

Well, if you have ever seen anyone try to use KB’s that hasn’t, you know they are not as easy as they appear. I asked the Fitness Director at Courtside if I could keep my KB’s there, in the trainer’s room and use them when I was at the gym. That’s was fine and worked well until they sometimes locked the door and I couldn’t get to my own equipment! I also decided I needed a trainer so I asked who in their huge cadre of trainers knew about KB’s. I was steered toward a woman (no longer there) and purchased 10 very expensive sessions with her.

“KB Trainer” said she knew what she was doing, well, she wasn’t certified, had never had any formal training and basically taught herself KB’s…the wrong way.

After that expensive lesson I started searching for a qualified instructor. I went to the Dragon Door website and emailed every RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certified) in San Jose. The conversations went back and forth quite a bit and I finally arrived at a choice: SC (Strength Coach) who would go on to train me for about three years.

Soon: My second trainer, “SC”

Oh, Courtside now has two full sets of kettlebells including "the beast"